Interlaminar shear strength measurement of ceramic composites by asymmetric four point bend shear test

Asymmetric four-point bend test is used for the measurement of interlaminar shear strength of ceramic composite. It is shown by finite element analysis that the method provides a reasonably good approximation to a constant shear state in the sample. The use of very small samples makes this method very attractive, especially during the material development stage, when larger samples may be impractical or impossible to fabricate. This technique is also useful when bigger samples would be prohibitively expensive or impractical.